I registered back in '99. It was a big drive, for a friend of a friend. It's been that long. They still seem to want to give me plenty of opportunity to back out.

Anyone done this, or know someone directly who has? I spoke briefly with the rep, and she gave me the run down on the two procedures, if I turn out to be a match. Neither one sounds particularly pleasant, but not horribly bad, either.

It's either 1) a moderately painful surgery where they get marrow from my hip bone. (Most people are back to full after 3 weeks, but back at work after 2-3 days.); or 2) flu like symptoms from an daily injection for 5 days, then sitting with a machine hooked up to me for 4-8 hours, taking blood out of one arm, spinning it, and pumping it back in through my other arm.

According to one source, the 5-days of shots are a type of chemo that elicits your bone marrow to send out stem cells that turn into white blood cells. They harvest them through the machine and they will use it to grow bone marrow in the recipient.

I made it through the questionnaire. I was thinking my travel/living in Europe might get me out of it, but apparently everytime I've lived overseas, I was in the 'wrong' area. ...or right, depending on one's view.

I just pushed the button to get the process rolling. Signed the consent form and emailed it to their legal department. Man, I hope this doesn't hurt too much.